Is there anything this man can't do? Simply amazing!:thumbsup:

a 15 minute Mile..

"........ This is Ground Control to Major Bill ............. there's something wrong .........."

You are cleared for launch ........ DUCK AND COVER DUCK AND COVER!!!!

What an idea for a Led Sled. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06587.jpg

Grandson and I dug this out this Dash missle the other day (one of his favorite cars). We found the stock tires had turned to stone. I was never enamored with those silly hollow core boot rubber tires and the internally flanged rims. With some minor fiddling the AFX Cragars mounted up. Skinned with PVT slip ons of course.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06589.jpg

A "pre snappy" Dash Cheetah, I didnt get overly fancy with the chassis mounting...blast a screw in...a quickee toothpaste lap and a comm polish. It was more of a 'speriment that has stood the test of time. She's been crashed, tumbled, cartwheeled, endo'ed and barrel-rolled more times than I can count.


LEAD SLED

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06590.jpg

The recent brass wars post guilted me into revisiting this cool chassis Zilla found on the Bay and sent me. It had been built without the aid of a jig and had some cracked and cold solder joints.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06591.jpg

Among it's many little problems, the rear axle bores were "waboed" out well beyond AW tolerances. Rather than get all fussy about it, I squared up the holes; and soldered in bushings, axle box to pan, and lateral motor mount bars all in one pass. I probably coulda puffed off some of the excess weight when it was hot; but chose to leave it on the rear axle.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06593.jpg

I also left the lead on the pontoons when the laterals and forward mount were re-secured. The front axle tube was gnarled up a bit and was soldered in way too high up and a hair to far forward. So much so that it interferred with the guide flag keeper. The axle tube mounts were cut back, lowered and the new tube was soldered in .

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06595.jpg

The road test was quite promising, however stalled in the end. The rear axle has a pretty good bend on one end, thus giving enough flutter to make it rattle a bit under hard throttle. The flag and foils are pretty cobbed up but we managed to save them for a few more laps. I'll go to a braid conversion at some point and adjust the final ride height. I was out of low-pros and went with the gumbos...snicker. Although it was initially cut for another project, the lexan Willys style body is my choice for now. It's just crammed on for the photo op

.

Cheetah is a real sleeper with those wheels on. Love the old school stuff. Great choice body. Bit of lead will only help!

Interesting Cheetah!! Never seen that version... I have yet to mess with a brass anything. Sooner or later, one will turn up in a lot off the bay. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Interesting Cheetah!! Never seen that version... I have yet to mess with a brass anything. Sooner or later, one will turn up in a lot off the bay. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Bill,

I finaly put in an order to PVT tires and love them. Had a few of them coughed up my way via Washington throw backs. Ordered a few of each tire they carry to get a general feel for what my future PVT tire needs will be.

That's what I said slotcarman. It turned up and ended up to be to much for me to fix. Send it to Bill Hall as he'll eat anything....wait that's Mikey. Fix anything...Yeah nice work man!

Bob...that chassis had lots of problems when I sent it out...zilla

Looking forward to the brass car getting completed. Fun stuff. Wish I could solder that good. It looks like welding vs. my beads of solder! The Cheetah looks awesome.
Jim

great work Bill!

You know me... a real sucker for any kind of chassis innovations!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06587.jpg




I like this missle, never thought of this type engine change, Doh!!! I can understand why he likes it!!! That's a good looking Willys body too...RM

really cool stuff bill,as always.like the brass chassis...

VJ, Yer run of beautiful custom Cheetahs way back when was the original inspiration for this car.

Bob, I'm glad your one of PVT faithful now...your cars will run smoother and quieter...Guaranteed!

Jim, The secret is watts, cleanliness/prep, heat sinks, and extra flux if needed... practice practice practice.

Randy, That lexan Willys came with the chassis (actually two)....Bobzilla knows where to gettem! I also have one that Bob painted on a massaged 440 wide pan for when folks come over and want to talk trash.

Nice CAT

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06596.jpg

Many of you have seen my old green Willys from the pre-goop era. She took a pretty hard tumble and once again snapped off that morphidite Hot Rod frame that I had originally put on. Last time it happened I vowed to update the screen to something a bit more durable, relative to my my driving style

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06598.jpg

The HOHT roadster style windsheild seemed the obvious choice so I dug out my trusty cassette box and hacked out a blank. Some quick file work created the basic shape and the all important bottom relief. In this case it will be reversed with the flat side towards the hood and the relief towards the back so the over hang will cover a few minor sins in the form of CA burns from the original HR frame. I also undercut the relief a hair so as to lean the glass back a little...purely for asthetics.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06599.jpg

I always use wet and dry paper ...even for windsheilds

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06601.jpg

Secret stuff. What you see here is my "sanding fan". It keeps things neat and orderly as most of the work I do requires a progression from one grit to the next. The sheets are stacked and then quartered. I just snip off what I need and go right to work without having to forever shuffle paper.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06602.jpg

Although I do own have a bowl for wet sanding, the kitty litter lid is about right for miscelaneous lil' projects. Also when I spill or schlobber ...it's no great shakes. As you can see it's pretty easy to just hop across the papers and grind a windsheild down to the desired thickness and remove all the scratches prior to polishing.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06603.jpg

Dont forget to do the undercut...the judges will spot that a mile away. I've forgotten on occassion and it looks like carp!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06604.jpg

This is the Matterhorn. My scuzzy ole brown towel that hangs from my lamp goes over the workbench. It covers all my stuff and keeps me from flinging compound all over my goods. It doubles as a catch fence for when you fling little pieces like THE current piece of glass. Actually twice in this case today.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06606.jpg

I take the extra time to sand the edges carefully square and put a slight forward bevel/roll on the glass. It provides the illusion of slimming it down IMHO. After a three stage buff shine and clarity are passable for a slot car...no need to get too crazy

Bill,
Not to overlook any of your body work, that is one heck of a windshield. :thumbsup::thumbsup::thumbsup: Dave

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06597.jpg

I actually did check the fit before final shaping and polishing. You can see that approximatly a third of the original thickness was removed when compared to the after sanding and polishing pic.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06607.jpg

Ultra crap rocker chrome on a roll from Schmucks. Works great, has a great shine and most importantly above all...it stays put!!!! :thumbsup:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06608.jpg

Another bench secret. For occassional maintenance or gingerly re-polishing already detailed cars with nick nacks in place; nuthin' beats a q-tip with #9 scratch and swirl remover. I chuck it up on low speed and doodle around slowly. Then a gentle cold water wash and buff dry

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06610.jpg

Clarity is good!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06609.jpg

Shape is just about right and it doesnt have those snaggy corners anymore!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06611.jpg

Conformity is not one of chrome tape's attributes; but if you can lay a flat piece of it...nothing shines better!

Great car Bill :thumbsup::thumbsup:... Is that an AFX head?... and the driver?... lmk... nd

Amazing work as can always be expected!!! From case cover to windshield and sculpted no less! Beautiful job!! :thumbsup::thumbsup:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06262.jpg

If you remember back we started here.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06613.jpg

It's been a sufficient amount of time for all the A pillars and vent posts to cure solidly on my two black katz. I spent some time resculpting the pillars, vents, and drip rails ...X4!!! Although each had similar damage above, one had wacked rear wells and rockers and the other had wacked fronts.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06618-1.jpg

You can just make out some added filler behind the front valence.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06617-1.jpg

...and on the rear in this pic. XKE wheel wells should drop to a nice square point at the rocker.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06615.jpg

I also went over the hood nicks one more time.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06616.jpg

They'll hang here for a while until I can touch up the final skim work and tidy up a few unseen odds and ends on the underside. We'll pick up again with a rough polish.

Thanks for sharing. Great tips and great results!

Bill,

That little Green race car is full of character now with that Chromed edge window now. Youre Willys looks like a blast to scoot around MMTV LAND in.

Bob...Jag-u-later...zilla

Amazing what you can do. Even more amazing what you can do with an old shnivel of cassette case. :eek:

Bill - amazimg work with that winshield. You make it sound so easy, but if I tried to sand that plastic to one third its thickness, I'd be reaching for the dremel after about 5 minutes!
The jags are looking great. The Qtip tip is pretty cool.
Jim

Love that green willys! Thanks for the tutorial on the windshield. Great tips (I like the sandpaper fan) and fabulous results. :thumbsup:

Mark

Love the green Willys, too!! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Thanks for the great tips & techniques and please keep the tutorials coming, they are so informative & interesting!! ..RL

Great car Bill :thumbsup::thumbsup:... Is that an AFX head?... and the driver?... lmk... nd

Gulp :freak:

I know the head came from a modern inline open wheel F-1 er Indy car. Lord knows where I harvested that burly 1/64 driver...reminds me of AJ Fat...er...Foyt.

First thing to go is the grey matter. I'll try an reconnoiter where I snarfed them from.

Bill - amazimg work with that winshield. You make it sound so easy, but if I tried to sand that plastic to one third its thickness, I'd be reaching for the dremel after about 5 minutes!
The jags are looking great. The Qtip tip is pretty cool.
Jim

Tell ya what Jim, it really is easy. Scuffing a chunk of hard plastic on 320 wet paper will get down to your finger in 5 minutes easy. It goes fast! In reality you must watch out that you dont take too much off!

Keep in mind that when I throw out some silly number like "one third", it is simply an eyeball measurement.

Allways fun to see another great tutorial Bill and more fine work . BTW your care pack is on the way with a nice batch of donor bods and parts as a kicker . Love to see what you do with what else is in the box .

Have fun , Bear :wave:

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06611.jpg

Hey Cecil B.... Looks like he's lookin fer some road to run laps on don't it?.... hint hint!!! :rolleyes: nd

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06597.jpg



I like this Chop, Cut, and Rebuild series, should be a TV show!!! More great rebuilding ideas. :thumbsup::thumbsup: Thanks...RM

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06597.jpg




Looks like the helmet from an early Tyco 440 Indy car - Chaparral-style, maybe a busted up Kraco or Pennzoil or Ferrari.

sweet Hot Rod and who says

BLACK cats are bad luck.

Very cool stuff Bill. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

bill - just freakin awesome on that willy, sandpaper and chrome tape!! :eek::eek:


Wes

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06624.jpg

24 hrs in easy off removed a coupla coats of blue latex.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06641.jpg

Unfortunately blue lacquer and some seriously gruesome damage lurked underneath.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06642.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06643.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06644.jpg

Two sitcoms later ...about an hour with 320 wet...whew! I can work with this

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06650.jpg

Grenaded rear post is cleaned and filled.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06651.jpg

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06648.jpg

320 is pretty aggressive, however given the damage it was a necessary evil. Note that we lost the upper door/roof seam. Willys are thin and weird right in that spot so even the slightest bit of sanding gets your seam thinned away.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06652.jpg

After another hour of sitcoms and some 600, the entire body was glazed with some testors. The tail end of this ole girl had taken a beating so we cut our losses and wiped the slate clean.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06653.jpg

I might be reachen just a bit with those rear tires...snicker...puffy enough but a hair tall. Prior to glazing any damaged seams are roughed back in. Clearly the stance is exactly backwards from the proper gasser stance. Once the basic screw post work is completed, we'll take just a bit off the back and add a chunk in the front.

Unbelievable!!! That is the same car??? The finish looks like someone tried the North Tx Firm grip and scuff on the sidewalk method of paint removal!! Shaping up great Gus... errmmm... Bill!! :lol: :thumbsup::thumbsup:

Great work! but ..... does the front end flip??? (snicker):wave:

CJ

Bill- I have to get after a T-bird slatey that was all scratched up. I didn't get aggressive with a 320 on it and thought the gouges were too deep. I'll have to give it another go. Thanks for the inspiration, as always.
Jim

WOW!!!!!!

Very nice save.

Ah man, I'm glad you saved that!!! A lot of time well spent :thumbsup::thumbsup: I like it Puff Daddy!!! RM

Great save! :thumbsup: :thumbsup: Keep watching those sitcoms! ..RL

Bill,

If it's near Trash Can Alley you feel the need to save it. What a save!

Don't mind CJ as he has Flipped as of lately. lol

Bob...Randy is a Pinto Puff Daddy...zilla

Bill- I have to get after a T-bird slatey that was all scratched up. I didn't get aggressive with a 320 on it and thought the gouges were too deep. I'll have to give it another go. Thanks for the inspiration, as always.
Jim

Lessee what ya got! Even a scuffed and buffed slatey is better than none!

Every darn one is different Jim...so each one is approached differently. This poor red Willys had much of it's original detail hap-hazzardly scuffed away. Fortunately most of the things are items that I delete anyway. :thumbsup:

Ideally you would just work the gnarly areas in 320. Clearly the red Willys was gnarly everywhere, so 320 was required to knock things down to a workable level. If you dont need the bazooka, dont use it. Switching papers to suit the area/damage helps minimize labor. It's easy to get frenzied into one grit and tunnel vision your way into extra labor by over sanding the required areas and blitzing a whole car for nuthing. That requires that the entire car to be brought back through all the ascending grit stages.

1. Of course you want to maximize your cut and minimize yer time. There's nothing more frustrating than trying to cut something off with 1200 when ya should go to 600 for a few strokes and then move to 1200.

2. Conversly though...I'm always looking to feather off what I'm working and move up to the next grit.

Finding the balance between 1 and 2 is the secret

Stop frequently, look and plan each area, pick your spots.

Now that's a Willies!

While I was waiting for the post grafts to set up, a chassis was worked up. A Tuff Ones open rivet base, later gear plate, lightened brass idler and driven gears, a 6 ohm AFX armature, with a nine tooth rear and some of the new extra grabby AW motor magnets. Nuthin crazy; a quick gear lap, a shoe tune, some break in time and she's respectable.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06656.jpg

A coupla millimeters were grafted back into the front post. For now the front hubs will remain wall-eyed.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06654.jpg

Probably a hair high in the front cuz I always leave extra. We'll snuggle it down later when I select the appropriate dummy motor.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06655.jpg

The back post repair is firmed up and the chassis sits fairly good side to side. The rear wells will be left alone for now until the front post height is set. Then those snaggly rear arches will get cleaned up.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06672.jpg

Here's a black speedline Willys with the beginnings of an A-pillar graft. The section was taken from an old Lamethrower Elva that I nibble on from time to time. Not readily obvious due to poor camera work is the pre-existing rocker seam from the Elva now masquerading as a Willys A-pillar/door seam. Planning ahead and harvesting an already existing seam from the donor speeds up the sculpting process later.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06668.jpg

Black is kinda hard for me to see; so after nit picking around 1200 wet, I gave the two kitties a preliminary buff with coarse compound (shown below). This really makes areas that need attention pop right out. Maybe a few small hits here and there in 1200... and then right to 1500.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06673.jpg

While I'm fartin' around with the latter stages of wet sanding; the windsheilds might as well get some required "de-nick-ification" before polishing. The 1200 and 1500 range is usually a good place to start clearing them up, unless there is horrendous pre-existing damage.

We're still a ways off but the end is near...well nearer than it was...snicker. I'm getting excited to finish the final cut, buff out, and mount them up on a pair of nice NOS solid rivet chassis from the stash box.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06666.jpg

Here's a 'Camino project I've been putting off cuz it's light yellow, which I dont particulary like to work with. Shown first is actually where we ended up. The following pix are how we get there.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06664.jpg

The donor is an old Maz-a- "ratty". Original fender grafts for Caminos are hard to come by and the Maz is fairly close. As the camino has a bit more lip than the Maz it's a good idea to pre-sculpt that detail in before harvesting the grafts. Then I snip them out with the cutters.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06662.jpg

First I snip out the big piece for the rear of the Camino.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06663.jpg

Always leave extra when you can...a workable niblet is way easier to handle and position than a tiny chip!

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06665.jpg

Try and leave the front chunk in as big a piece as possible too. These will be the grafts for the front Camino wells. Again, way easier to sculpt and then attach later.

http://i44.photobucket.com/albums/f30/modelmurdering/DSC06667.jpg

Extra time checking and rechecking fit helps you get a gapless fit. Once the graft is cured, the excess is snipped off and profiled into the rear rocker. I'll do these one at a time so they hang correctly.

Amazing work Bill. Thanks for sharing!

I love a good goop story from Bill. Always fun to follow along on a few Model Murdering adventures.

Bob...plastic power...zilla

Agree: Amazing work Bill & Thanks for sharing! :thumbsup: ..RL

I'm always impressed when I see a new posting here, but the 'camino rebuild is something else!!! I know this isn't the first rebuild from parts being performed at Model Murdering, but it's a much harder level rebuild I can recall seeing, at least in a while. :thumbsup::thumbsup:

I'm tickled about the 'camino because this level of piecing pieces parts together is where the fun can really begin, where repair can cross over to fabrication. A percentage of MEV's car bodies comes from this technique. Utilizing parts from this car and a few niblets from a few others to make a totally new uncharted territory car body. Though this type of work is way beyond my capabilities, I'm watching intently, so maybe in my next life I will be capable of doing stuff like this.. :rolleyes:

Jag's are looking good, Bill; as is the black Willys... :thumbsup::thumbsup: